What to do when things aren't going your way

I've realised that my roller derby life at the moment seems to have a theme.  The theme is that things are Less Than Ideal.

• I can't make as many Sunday practises as the rest of my group.
• The midweek practise, which I can make, has a gummy floor.
• I'm not as fit as I'd like, or as brave, or as agile.

But I've realised that don't want to complain about these things any more.  They are true, but complaining would be the wrong response, it won't change the situation, and I don't want to be that annoying girl whinging in the corner all the time about how things are sooooo baaaad for her.

Take the floor, for instance.  It was horrible.  I hated it, at least for the first hour of practise.  But saying "I can't do this... because of the floor." would be a complete cop-out.  I'd be whinging and excusing myself for performing badly and not trying my hardest.  The correct response would be "I can do this, IN SPITE of the floor.  Screw you, floor!  I shall skate on you anyway, no matter how crappy the results!"  I've been reading some other skaters blogs recently and something they all seem to agree on is that (although we all have our legitimate meltdowns) to try something terrifying and bite the dust is far better than to do it half-assed for fear of falling.

SO, let's carry this theory on.  I can only make half of the Sunday practises for the next 6 weeks or so.  I hate that, but that's the way it is.  I can't change it. I could go to practise and make excuses for myself and why I'm behind everyone else, or I could say "Hey, look how much effort I'm going to give, in spite of having missed a few sessions."  I want to be the first up on skates, I want to be practicing my laterals and transitions while the others are still doing up their laces.  I want to get the most out of every drill, make note of every bit of feedback I get from my teammates, coaches and refs.  When I can't skate, I want to be cycling, and doing my leg-cercises at home so that when I am on track I've given myself the best chance of kicking ass.

No more complaining.

Let's skate.